Saturday, May 15, 2010

Barcelona In Wonderland

Another wonderful year has ended and began for me as I celebrated my birthday in Wonderland style this year with my closest and best of friends- all of whom I love and cherish so much.


Birthdays are always a wonderful time of the year for me. Besides having a wonderful excuse to dress up, party, have cocktails and of course treating to yourself to a little luxury/shopping/ or retail splurges, I always take this time of the year to reflect on my life journey. Most of all, I think of all my friends whom I have shared my life with and how much they have supported, encouraged , made me laugh, gave me a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on and most of all- believing and trusting in me that I am who I am and that I am the best friend that they have ever had. This just makes me want to be a better person each day and I strive to be the best that I can be as I offer them my friendship and love.


This has been another wonderful year and another remarkable milestone for me in my life's journey. Without my friends, family and God, I would suck! and be lost. Here's to each and everyone one of you (my lovely and dearest friends)- THANK YOU for another wonderful and exciting year and I pray for many more to come and I count it as a blessing and my greatest honour to be able to be a friend and to do life with YOU.


Another year wiser and taller in life, Because you made me believe and trust that I can be the best that I can be each time.


Cheers to that! <3 xoxo


Toasting to a beautiful occasion with San Pellagrino's bubbly Aranciata and Lemonita <3


As promised, here it is- my Wonderland inspired outfit selected specially from Valerie Tolosa. Here I am wearing my Savannah Frill Top in peach and the Hazel Side Bow Skirt in navy. I chosed this outfit because it has such a girly, feminine look with the oversized frill top and the short skirt adds a fashionably chic look to the outfit.
And I get to play with the colours of the outfit and make it into a fun wonderland-chic look. I love my buttercup-yellow heels and check out my Bollywood inspired bangle and "mushroom" wonderland coloured rings :)



I kept the makeup simple, fresh and pretty with some voilet and baby blue, all light smoked out with a hint of purple glitter and I wore a beautiful pair of Shu Uemura falsies. The design of the falsies were inspired by the tails of a gold fish! And it has some beautiful purple tints to it :)




Gourmet Pizzas, Gelatos and Cocktails were the food theme for the night







And thank you y'all for the icing on the cake- my lovely and gorgeous presents xoxo


And THANK YOU to everyone of you who have willingly subjected yourself to my indulgence in an Alice In Wonderland themed birthday. I love each and every one of your efforts and creativity. Thanks for a Wonder Night and I can't wait to see what 2010 will unfold as we continue to paint each other's lives and leave an imprint of our souls in each other's lives :)
xoxo


Yours always, Barcelona xoxo

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

A tribute and Alice In Wonderland Birthday Party coming up

The world of fashion offers endless possibilities and I LOVE seeing how brilliant designers put together beautiful fabrics and through their creative visions, produce some beautiful and magnificent designs and outfits.

Fashion knows no boundaries, be it from the creative minds of designers to the geographical aspects where each day, more and more designers around the world are being discovered as their craftsmanship are being put on the world fashion pedestal.

My dream job is to be able to travel the world to source these beautiful minds and talents and make a name out of their creative talents for the world to behold (and also to go on me ;)

Right now, I would like to pay tribute to one of my favourite Australian Designers. 

Australia has a pretty small and very protected fashion industry, which bugs the heck out of me. However, I can understand the point to this as this gives young and emerging Aussie fashion talents to compete locally and it preserves the industry from other profitable mega-fashion houses from overseas. Can you imagine H&M, Forever 21, Zara, Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Mossimo Ducatti, Abercrombie and Fitch, Banana Republic and so forth invade the small fashion industry space in Australia? It would be goodbye Sportsgirl, Supre, Witchery, Marcs and so forth.

I have had the chance to travel to the USA, Canada and various parts of Asia and one of my favourite part of travelling is being able to shop locally at my travel destination and finding rare gems that I would not be able to purchase in Australia. The sweetest part is more so when these international brands do not sell or ship their stuff overseas and it adds more exclusivity to my purchased items :)

However, having said that, I want to say that I am one proud supporter of Australian designer talents. Some of my favourite pieces that I own in my wardrobe are mostly from Australian designers. And each time I wear them on me, I feel proud especially when I am travelling overseas and receive compliments from people for my outfits (from Aussie designers).

I will be blogging more on each of my favourite Australian designers and showcase some of my favourite pieces from each one of them in my future updates.

In this edition, I would like to introduce Valerie Tolosa. 

VT has been around since 2002 when she first debuted at the Mercedes Australia Fashion Week that year. Since that year, VT has created many different and memorable collections such as "An Affair To Remember", "Young Hollywood" and "Winter Wonderland". Her collections has caught the attention of many international fashion buyers and boutiques that her label grew immensely, along with a strong media and publicity interest in her collections.

VT has also created some well-loved and famous celebrated designs, with the Ashley Frill Dress in summer 2006 (pictured above). 

What I love about VT's designs is that they are so wearable and it has a charming, feminine and sweet feel to it. They are girly-grown up, yet so glamorous which is my absolute love in my personal style as I am still a girl at heart. Her fabric selections for her designs incorporates comfortable and soft silk linens, silk satins, silk cottons, lace and chiffons - all of which gives her outfits a luxurious feel. 






Here are some of my favourite pieces from VT showcased at The Sydney Fashion Week 2009

Love the opening piece to VT's runway show. I <3 the bubble gum balloons :)

So gorgeous and fun with the pretty pastel tiers and a cute bow - Miley Tiered Dress

Lila Frill Neck Dress with embroideries- <3
I LOVE a white dress in all its simplicity and purity and the way to glamourise it is with a pair of sexy heels and minimal jewellery and a statement ring, keeping the look chic with nice flowy curls and natural makeup on tanned skin *melt* :)

The Apple Strapless Playsuit - love the soft baby blue with white trimmings. This outfit is so perfect for a summer vacation away in a beautiful resort. Dress it up with some strappy heels with big loop earrings and bangles on the wrist or dress down with some flat gladiator or beaded-strap flat sandals with a pair of oversized sunnies. I would personally not wear a necklace with this outfit as it will be a good chance to show off those sexy bronzed collarbones and take the attention up to the face with a chandelier earring or large hoop earrings :)

Stella Bubble Dress - VT's dresses are so wearable day and night and if you have no accessories to go with the outfit, the perfect compliment to a short dress like the Stella is a pair of heels. Be bold and wear a strong coloured heels like red, buttercup yellow or fuchsia pink. If you want accessories, go minimal like a studded diamond earring, single Tiffany bangle or bracelet and bring the rest of the attention to a pretty flawless face with some soft pastel eyeshadows with soft-blushed cheeks (think marshmallow pink, or Nars Orgasm blush) and Becca's Julep lip gloss with this outfit with some black mascaras on your lashes to open up those eyes :)

These are just a few of my favourites and they do not do enough justice to VT's entire Summer 2010 collection. Please visit her website at http://www.valerietolosa.com/springsummer10/ for her gorgeous complete summer collection.

Most of her collection reminds me of Alice In Wonderland (one of my favourite fairy tales). You would probably have noticed that I have an Alice Fever this year so much so that for my up-coming birthday dinner celebration this year, I have requested an Alice in Wonderland theme amongst my friends :)

And to complement this special occasion, I have a Valerie Tolosa outfit and I have also picked up the perfect accessories to go with the outfit. Stay tuned and I will show you my outfit soon and post some pictures from my Alice In Wonderland Birthday Party :)

Love & Grace, xoxo

Monday, May 3, 2010

The weight of $20

I received a cheque in the mail for $20 sometime last month. This cheque came as a surprise from my friend Li-Ann who just recently had twin baby boys. 


Charles and Li-Ann welcomed their bundle of joy - Hamish(L) and Luca(R) on the 11th March at 36 weeks and 2 days, 2 minutes apart. They are 2.28 and 2.14kg each- healthy and well!




Speaking of their weight, at the baby shower, Li-Ann got us all to play a guessing game of the babies weight combined at birth. And guess who the winner is? :)


The total combined weight came to 4.42kg and my guess was 4.5kg :) There were two other guesses that came close which were 4.8kg and 4.9kg.


The prize won came from a collective donation from all the girls who participated in the game.


This felt like winning a lottery and I was excited and happy to have won a prize. The prize wasn't all about the winnings. To me, I just felt blessed to be able to see my close friend's first twins being delivered safely and healthy and also, being so lucky to be able to guess the closest combined weight of the twins :)


Congratulations Li and Charles on this beautiful dream and blessings! xoxo







Sunday, May 2, 2010

California Adventure Park - Anaheim

If you want more extreme rides, this is the place to be and it is right next to Disneyland Resort Park.




So my first stop was at Insectopia featuring A Bug's Life and this has gotta be one of the cutest theme I saw here. And the 3D movie was so fun and cute also with alot of special effects.













Next, I stumbled upon a bread-making exhibition. Since I was given some free sample tasting sourdoughs, I walked right through the exhibition.











Boudin Sourdough Bakery, since 1849

And this became my lunch for the day - one of the best tasting clam chowder in thick sourdough bread bowl
And a sweet ice tea :)


And a scrumptious and delicious lunch, I am ready to take on the extreme ride challenge despite of the wet weather.




Welcome to Paradise Pier







Ferris Wheel with a twist
with swinging gondolas


Check out the roller coaster runway from above. That's where I am going to next :)

The starting mark, 5,4,3,2,1! And you're off like a shooting bullet






Approaching Bear Mountain now, bear left


This is a wet ride along river rapids and it was raining. I don't know what got into me but I just wanted to go on the ride despite carrying a Mimco leather bag and knowing well that I will be soaked wet at the end of the trip. Oh well, since I travelled all the way to Bear Mountain, might as well bear with it ;P



So i got myself an adult Disney rain poncho and I am ready for the Grizzly Bear River Run




Off the Page Animation Academy



























The Twilight Zone : Tower of Terror- seated in an elevator, you will be plunged to a depth of 13 storeys below



The hotel's creepy and haunted elevators where the horror takes place